The Court of Appeal increased Graham Shannon’s sentence for four arson offences to 10 years’ imprisonment, backdated to the date used by the sentencing court, and suspended the final year. The court allowed a sentence review brought by the Director of Public Prosecutions, quashed the original sentences as unduly lenient and resentenced Shannon on the material before it.
Shannon had pleaded guilty to four counts of arson. The original sentences were two years on counts 1 to 3 and four years on count 4, with the final six months suspended. They all ran concurrently, producing an effective term of three and a half years.
The first three counts concerned cars set alight outside occupied homes. One fire damaged a house as well as a car; the other two cars were burnt out. The judgment said the first three offences were motivated by financial gain linked to a €200 debt, and that there was also a personal element to the second and third attacks. Count 4 concerned a garage in New Ross, County Wexford, set on fire on 26 December 2018. The fire caused about €229,600 in damage, destroyed the business and sent debris into the garden of the garage owner’s elderly parents, whose home was next door.
The DPP argued that the sentences started too low and that the garage offence should have received a consecutive sentence. Shannon argued the sentencing judge had stayed within the proper range and that concurrent sentences were appropriate for similar offending committed within a short period. The Court of Appeal said a 2019 sentence for each count was too low and amounted to a substantial departure from the norm. It also noted the proximity of the fires to occupied homes, the revenge motive for the garage attack, the victims’ losses and the respondent’s relevant previous convictions.
The court set headline sentences of six years on each of counts 1 to 3 and eight years on count 4. After allowing for the guilty plea, remorse and apology letters, it reduced those terms to four years on counts 1 to 3 and six years on count 4. Counts 1 to 3 run concurrently; count 4 runs consecutively to them, making a total of 10 years. The court said this structure gave effect to the totality principle and achieved a proportionate sentence.
The court noted that Shannon was working and attending classes in prison and had enhanced privilege status. To promote rehabilitation, it suspended the final year of the sentence.